May 2014

 May was a busy month for us in 2nd grade.  We worked hard to get everything wrapped up before the end of the year.  In math, we touched on the introduction to multiplication and division.  In social studies, we wrapped up our unit on map skills.  In science we finished out the year with our last chapter on motion and magnets.  In writing we did our "big" project for the year which was a two paragraph animal report.  The students picked an animal they were interested in and did research on that animal and wrote/typed up their reports and got to add clip art as a final touch.  We also made Mother's Day gifts which included a flower craft and a writing sample "All About My Mom".  The last craftivity we did was make a "suitcase" about our year in 2nd grade.  They students added several pages to the book about activities they did during the year.  The last couple days of school included a field trip to Wylie Park/Storybook Land and rollerskating at Skate Away.  We also had a track and field day "The Wildcat deCAThlon"! It was a great year and I enjoyed it and the students very much!  Here's wishing you all a wonderful summer break and looking forward to seeing you again when school starts back up!  HAPPY SUMMER!

April 22-30, 2014

This past week in 2nd Grade, we celebrated Earth Day.  We did a craftivity/writing activity on if we were the Lorax how we would help the Earth.  We cut out circles from white construction paper and put them in a box with dots of green and blue paint on them and marbles in the box.  Then we shut the lid and shook the box to make a cool effect with the paint so our circles looked like "Earths".  We then glued a picture of ourselves on the Earth of us posing with a Lorax mustache.  We then wrote what we would do help the Earth.  In Math we started a new chapter on adding and subtracting to the hundreds place with and without regrouping.  In Social Studies, we are now working on map skills.  In Grammar we worked on using adverbs and in Reading, we read about African-American inventors.  We are getting ready for our spring music concert too...the theme is the 1980's!

April 7-11, 2014

This past week in 2nd Grade, we wrapped up our Social Studies unit on Citizenship.  Citizenship also happens to be our character trait for the month of April for Character Counts.  For the remainder of the school year we will be working on map skills for Social Studies.  In Science, we also wrapped up our latest chapter on how matter changes.  In Math, we've been working on measurement.  Lately we've been measuring pounds, ounces, grams, and kilograms.  We've been doing hands on activities using standard and non standard units of measurement.  For writing, we wrote a Spring Acrostic Poem since April is national poetry month.  We also did a writing craftivity on if we were the Easter Bunny.  April is also Autism Awareness month and we wore our Autism shirts on April 2nd and learned more about how Autism affects people including one of our own classmates.

March 24-28, 2014

This past week in 2nd grade, we started our new chapter in math on measurement.  We have been using standard and nonstandard units to measure object and have also learned about square units when measuring area.  We did a lot of review for grammar/phonics over concepts we had previously covered.  We also did our written test then our oral spell-off to determine our top two spellers that get to go to the county spelling bee in April.  In science, we've been talking a lot about matter and changes in matter.  A previous writing craftivity that we did was make leprechauns using orange hand prints for the beards then writing a story describing how we would catch a leprechaun.  We focused on sequencing using such words as first, next, then, and last in our writing.

March 3-7, 2014

Read Across Northwestern Week!  This past week we celebrated Dr. Seuss with a whole week filled with "Seuss Activities".   On Monday, we dressed up like Thing 1 and Thing 2; Tuesday was Cat in the Hat day; Wednesday we read Dr. Seuss books together with the 5th graders; Thursday was crazy socks and shoes day for the Foot Book; and Friday was Lorax Day!  We read several Dr. Seuss books all week, watched videos and learned a little about Dr. Seuss from his biography.  We also did writing activities, art projects and of course had some snacks to celebrate too!  After reading "Oh the Places You'll Go", we did a writing activity about what we wanted to be when we grew up.  We also read about the Apollo 11 lunar landing which went well with our last chapter in Science about the moon and the solar system.  We even did a little research on Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and watched the actual clip of Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon!  In Math we started our new chapter on Geometry and in Social Studies we started talking about local, state and national government.

Our Writing Project

Thing 1 and Thing 2

 Even the staff got into it!

Cat in the Hat Day

Reading with our 5th Grade buddies

February 17-21, 2014

This past week in 2nd Grade we celebrated Presidents Day by reading stories about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and watched some videos about their lives and presidencies.  We also talked about some other influential Presidents that our country has had.  We read a nonfiction story about explorers in our reading textbook and about Christopher Columbus.  We worked on compare and contrast with the information we learned about the Presidents and about the early explorers.  We worked on a Venn Diagram to visually see "compare and contrast".  In grammar, we worked on pronouns and possessive pronouns.  In math we explored expanded form and place value up to the hundreds.  In writing, we discussed making our writing more interesting not just "grocery list" writing.  We are currently discussing the solar system in science and our latest chapter covered the moon's phases.  We did a project with Oreo cookies where the students had to make the 8 phases of the moon using the cookies.  They then completed a "mini moon phase book" and of course got to eat their cookies at the end of the project!

February 10-14, 2014

This past week in 2nd Grade, we worked on the vowel teams of oi and oy.  Several of our spelling words also contained oi and oy words.  In math, we started working with hundreds.  We talked about place value and also started working on addition and subtraction of numbers in the hundreds.  We read about the Winter Olympics and did some compare/contrast of the Olympic games.  We also talked about plays and read a play in our reading books.  We then wrote our own short plays.  In science we continued to talk about the solar system and about the phases of the moon.  We made "love bugs" out of hearts to decorate our room for Valentine's Day and read about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.  We then did a writing activity for President's Day about what we would do if we were president.